Konoha's Bellflower
by frailityofgenius
Summary: Namikaze Kikyo. Younger sister to the Yondaime Hokage, once an annoying brat to Kakashi Hatake, her life takes a turn off a cliff the night of the Kyuubi attack. Left to take care of her nephew, Naruto, and attempt to surpass her hero brother, join her as she develops from a child prodigy to one of Konoha's elite along with her friend Kakashi. Rated M for many reasons; SI/OC (ish)
1. Chapter 1

**HEY SO THIS IS MY NEW STORY (Not new I've been writing this for** ** _ever_** **), but it's still very much so in the making. I'm basically posting it because I want feed back — to see if it's worth continuing really. I probably will no matter what though, let's be real. I have 70% or so of the plot planned out, and most of the ideas for it are already written down somewhere so I can just write them into the story. Plus Kakashi is SO freaking sexy and my one true love (has been since the beginning of Naruto when I started this journey :')) so it would be blasphemous not to finish this.**

 **Anyway…**

 **Naruto does not belong to me. Disclaimer shit. He belongs to Kishimoto, who has killed too many of my hopes, dreams, and other loves.**

 **Enjoy the beginning!**

"onee-chan, onee-chan, onee-chan, onee-chan—" Kushina cut off the adorable little pale blonde girl with a chuckle, ruffling her hair and pinching her cheek.

"Darling, please, the nurse deals with enough all day, she doesn't need your hyperactivity in addition. I'm excited to see your little nephew too, 'ttebane." Little icy blue eyes rolled at her 'sister', huffing and puffing her cheeks out as Kikyo crossed her arms over her chest. The nurse blushed and stammered, denying that _the Hokage's little sister_ could possibly be annoying her in any way. Minato, ever the work-a-holic, swooped in with a whoosh of cloak, bending down to kiss his darling sister's head and taking his wife's hand in his own.

"And how is our boy doing today love?" The Yondaime Hokage was surely the picture of Konoha's finest and happiest, holding his wife's hand with the sparkle of _something_ joyous in his eye and sister attached to his hip. Kushina had nothing but equal affection for him as well, smiling up at him while the nurse fidgeted with the ultrasound technology in order to show the family the little boy due in just a few weeks.

"Is that him?" Wide blue eyes stared up at the screen from her new place on her older sister(in-law)'s bed, resting beside her hip, while on all fours staring over at the machine. Her siblings exchanged a look, smiling at the amazed child, and Minato ruffled Kikyo's hair. She merely swatted his hand, too engrossed in looking at the tiny figure inside of Kushina's swollen stomach in fascination. Kikyo hurriedly asked the nurse to explain how they were able to tell that it was the baby, that the baby was healthy, that his limbs were growing properly and he wouldn't have syndactyly (webbed) digits when he was born, etc.

Kushina frowned at her language, much more advanced than nearly _any_ eight year old she had _ever_ met, and was reminded of her and Minato's constant worry—that **they** would come for her soon. While it was highly unlikely they would do it without the Yondaime Hokage's permission, the thought of their little sister (as Kushina had come to view her also) on the elder's radar did weigh heavily on Kushina's mind.

Kikyo was much too smart for her own good.

"Yes, that's going to be your _oi_ (nephew) Kikyo." Minato patted her head once more as they heard shuffling and the door swing open, startling the poor nurse who was unused to all of the commotion in the infant ward.

"Minato-sensei!" A rough thirteen year old boy with gravity defying silver hair swept into the room, mask betraying no emotion, but uncovered eye showing that he was somewhat distressed. Almost instantly Minato was by his side, and Kikyo was sitting by her brother's wife, face as red as can be. Her _aneki_ (older sister) spared her no embarrassment, pinching her cheek and drawing her attention away from the boy to leave the two men to their business.

"Hmm, I see your little crush hasn't wavered. Should I be worried about you liking older boys Kikyo?" She stared appalled at Kushina, mouth open wide and for once had nothing to say. Her older sister let out a hearty laugh, pushing Kikyo's hair out of her face as she pouted.

"Maa, Onee-chan! It's not funny. I'm almost eight!" Kushina looked up to Minato, ignoring her steaming companion for a moment, to tell him that the nurse was almost done and to take Kikyo with him to the Tower until she could leave to meet them. He picked up his now giggling little sister by the waist, spinning her to be on top of his shoulders, and bent down to kiss his wife and allow Kikyo to kiss her forehead at the same time. The two left the room, smiles and giggles, as they made their way to the Hokage tower, leaving Kushina to speak with the nurse about the best way for her to deliver the baby away from the hospital.

"MINATO, WHAT IS OUR SISTER DOING HERE RIGHT NOW 'TTEBANE!" Minato flinched at the unbridled anger in his wife's eyes, as Kikyo giggled at her _aniki's_ fear of her. It was no secret that Kushina was a scary woman when she wanted to be, and this was no exception. The midwives, Hiruzen's wife and an ANBU woman, attempted to calm her and ordered Minato to begin his monitoring of her seal to keep it stable during delivery. While he wasn't overly concerned with that aspect, since this was carefully thought and planned out, it was only right to be cautious and safe about it. Kushina told Kikyo to stay off to the side, and she did so, keeping closer to her sister than the older woman probably would have liked, but stayed quiet so that there was no reason for them to make her leave.

The cave was surprisingly well lit, and while the labor process was a few hours in, Kikyo was drawn from the scroll that her brother had given her on ninjutsu by a strange shadow in a dark section of the cave. As soon as her eyes focused on the shape it was gone, and with it her suspicions. Really, Kikyo was only seven years old (about to be eight right before the genin exams, she would stress), and being the younger sister of the Fourth Hokage did well for her. It did, however mean she wasn't quite so suspicious of the world yet.

That said, don't let any of that paint the picture. Kikyo was quite the articulate seven year old, already proficient with projectiles—especially kunai, but her work with senbon and shuriken were steadily improving and definitely above par—and well on her way to becoming more than just good with taijutsu. While her ninjutsu wasn't bad per say, she knew that she needed more than just the entrance exam level jutsus in her arsenal. She had been nagging her older brother to show her how to preform his signature jutsu, Hiraishin, after he began teaching her a bit about seals and fuinjutsu in general, but he was fairly adamant that she not learn just yet. She was also well on her way to graduating in the next year with the twelve year olds, which would put her at about the same level as the Uchiha prodigy her brother spoke of. But as Minato stressed, she was going to have to work _very_ hard to surpass the "Weasel."

Still, in recent years Kikyo had become quite the prodigy. Though she would never say it out loud, there was a reason for that. From the time she was born, Minato had been a seal master. Not a perfect one until close to the time that he became Yondaime Hokage, but he was proficient enough to do something somewhat…outlandish. He placed a seal on his sister, a chakra storage seal and an intricate one at that. The seal itself was fairly simple in consruction, but the way that it filtered and stored chakra enabled it, as both Kikyo and her chakra supply grew, the seal would grow with her. It would store just a small percentage of chakra daily, and Minato cleverly hid in her things a scroll she could only open when she had mastered fuuinjutsu herself.

Then she would be able to store more, or less, and draw upon it as she saw fit. Essentially: one massive chakra bank.

It was one of the reasons that she had more chakra than others her age, and that she was able to do better justu as well. As her chakra was drained each day during her sleep cycle, her body would produce just a little bit more, as if she were using it daily. So that naturally she would have more chakra to use and draw from during training or battle.

Returning to her scroll (Kikyo did _not_ want to watch the birthing of her little nephew no matter how many times her brother and Kushina teased her about how 'educational' it was, should she ever pursue a medic-nin career), she ignored the ominous feeling creeping up her skin, choosing instead to push it to the back of her mind.

And that's exactly when everything went to shit.

Kikyo heard the soft thud of a body hitting the ground over Kushina's violent curses at her brother but had little time to react, a hooded figure quickly making light work of the midwives that had just finished bundling up her clean little nephew to hand to her sister.

 _How had I not sensed his presence?'_ Minato had no more time to think when the shadow took Naruto, freezing the new father in his tracks. Kikyo ran toward her sibling and without warning or sign, was effortlessly knocked to the side, her small frame hitting the wall of the cave behind her with such force that Kushina actually growled.

Her small eyes made contact with Kushina's, while she saw her brother attempt to fight the man, and through half-lidded eyes saw her sister whisper that she loved her. Her eyes couldn't shut though, she couldn't stop herself. She had to see. She _had to see_. The hooded figure tsked, a clone she guessed, appearing to her right and giving her a full view of his mask, orange swirls and a bright red eye peeking out.

Then all at once, her world went black.

Sarutobi Hiruzen had never felt as angry at the world as the moment he saw the empty look in the eyes of the little girl sitting before him. With pale blond hair and the iciest blue eyes he had ever seen, her rosy cheeks and sweet-natured disposition only made it harder for him. The man knew he was looking at no ordinary seven year old, and he opened his mouth to speak right as she cut him off.

"My brother died didn't he." Somewhere in the back of her mind she knew that she was too intelligent, too smart to be seven years old, but just because she felt as though she was an adult in a child's body, did not mean that anyone would believe that. The small girl looked no better or worse than she had before, except for a steeled expression that told the Third that there would a lot to discuss with her. "Kushina too…I don't want you to spare me because you think you know what is best. I need to know what happened and where Naruto is. He's my responsibility now, and I know Onee-chan and my aniki would agree with me."

The Third was almost surprised at how old she sounded, almost, and relented to tell her what happened. Not before warning her that this was information she couldn't share with anyone, not even her nephew, of course.

"Your sister-in-law, Kushina, offered to have the Nine-Tails sealed inside of her after the man who attacked her released it. Your brother realized that the power of the Nine-Tails' would be needed for the future, so he decided to seal the beast into Naruto. He had to use the Dead Demon Consuming Seal to cut its chakra in half, because all of its chakra would be too much for your nephew as an infant, and left only its yang chakra. The Nine Tails realized what your brother and sister wanted to do and attempted to kill Naruto before they could do so, so your brother and his wife used their own bodies to shield him…" The Third took a shaky breath, looking at the wall of the safe-house they were in and beginning to tell the story again, a far-away look in his eyes. Kikyo could tell he wasn't speaking as much to her as he was to himself then, and listened intently, focus never wavering. This was too much, but she had to bear it.

 _For Minato. Kushina. Naruto._

"I followed Minato to their location, but Kushina's barrier was too strong for me to penetrate, and Minato requested to me that I relay to the citizens of Konoha that they regard Naruto as a hero for helping to save the village. With that, Minato sealed the Nine-Tails into Naruto, adding his and Kushina's chakra to the seal so that they could watch him grow up and someday help him gain control of the Nine-Tails… But Minato had many enemies…" The Sandaime turned to the girl acknowledging her once more and handing her the bundle in his arms. She carefully held the smaller infant, looking up at the Third as he told her what was going to happen to them.

"Naruto will be an Uzumaki from now on. That was his mother's family name, though I'm sure you know that, but it will do you well to stick to it so that no one will know he is their child. You both will be safe this way. I will tell Konoha what has happened and what Minato requested of me, but I will not allow anyone to discuss the Nine-Tailed beast…perhaps this will keep some of the hatred at bay. Still…" Kikyo looked up from her nephew's face, where bright cerulean blue eyes peeked out of his lashes, so that she could meet the Third's gaze.

"I **will** stay with Naruto. I know that I can be recognizable…but I can change my last name too, to stay with him. I believe that the villagers will take your word if you tell them I am not Minato's sister…It's believable enough. We have no family to go to…" The Third sighed as he dropped into a seat next to the girl and leveled his gaze with her.

"I cannot raise you." Kikyo had expected this and thought long and hard for a moment, although her seven year old self was much more mature, she knew that human sentiment and familial relations were extremely important so she knew that there was only one place her and Naruto could guarantee they would stay together.

"The orphanage will take us. We can live on our own with the help of some of my brother's money and when Naruto is old enough…I'm in the academy already and I'm confident that I can graduate within the year if I spend enough time on training. Then I can provide for the two of us. You can tell the village I went missing." This caused the man beside her to tense up. Sarutobi was not shocked, he had heard of her maturity from members of the council and members of ANBU even, but he was still unprepared to see it up close…It was only a matter of time before she would be pursued. They liked to groom ninja young.

Minato would be furious with her if he heard how his precious _imouto_ (little sister) was talking, as if she were an adult that could provide and take care of a child when she was still a child herself. Minato would absolutely _murder_ Sarutobi for what he was about to do however.

"That is acceptable. Konoha will likely look at the both of you with contempt — the Kyuubi's chakra, though sealed, will still be able to be sensed for some time — but I will do whatever is in my power not to let this happen." Kikyo had seen everything she considered good in the world—besides her precious new nephew—destroyed that day, and she did not doubt that the Sandaime would try. She highly doubted the success of his endeavors though. And her eyes betrayed it, the cold, numbing bitterness of her brother's death for people who would likely condemn her nephew was clear in her features. She had no time to cry or mourn, staring down at the bundle in her arms. It was time to grow up. She stood and looked at the elderly man, speaking softly but with force.

"Then I will go now. If there is anything that you can gather for us…anything of my brother or Kushina's, or of our own, you'll know where to find us." The aloof look on her face coupled with the distant look in her eyes made Hiruzen's heart clench, and he rested his hand on her shoulder for a moment.

"I'll do whatever I can."

Those were the last kind words she heard from someone for weeks to come.

Something had truly changed in Kikyo that night. She didn't quite believe in reincarnation, but the Kyuubi attack had done a number of things. She hadn't known beforehand, or perhaps it was the trauma of losing her most precious people, that gave her the gift (and curse) of an eidetic memory. She could still see everything happen in perfect clarity…like a Sharingan without the extra abilities. She also found that she no longer enjoyed most of the things that she did before, preferring to read advanced scrolls and train, rather than read books and laze about or even get dango.

She had grown up in the blink of an eye, passed the point of childhood prematurely. While she would like to say it shocked her, Kikyo felt this fit her more than the child she had always had to force herself to be. Deep in the back of her mind she could recall very small bits and pieces of a familiar home, one completely different from her own, and a familiar family that looked nothing like hers. A life, possibly a past one, where she had only lived to be twenty five.

So it came as no surprise, and no little amount of annoyance, that she simply could not _deal_ with the children in her classes at the academy.

Kikyo also could not be bothered to hear her Chuunin teacher speak. Ever.

Staring out at the bright sun and thinking about the time she could be spending training, practicing for the-

 _What was she practicing for?_

The thought hit her light a ton of bricks and she struggled with it for a moment, realizing how distracted she had been lately. She had pushed her small body to the brink of exhaustion day after day, until her taijutsu teacher had commented on how advanced she had become. Her ninjutsu and genjustu and also drastically improved as she had set out on a 'mission' soon after her brother's death to retrieve any and all of their scrolls, through the Sandaime of course.

She was only eight now, but she knew with the work she'd been putting in she was at least chuunin level, so she should be able to graduate that year. But for what?

More often than she would admit, Kikyo found herself pondering this question at times, grief seizing her heart as her brother and Kushina's faces flashed in her mind. **_MinatoKushina-Naruto._**

 ** _Naruto._**

That was what for, or rather who for.

 _To protect Naruto. To be stronger than everyone and anyone in order to do so. To never lose another person she loved._

Not that she had many.

She was drawn to the presence outside of the classroom that flickered every now and then on her radar, which she had come to realize meant that she was actually sensing a familiar chakra presence. She had begun to sense chakra much better, especially this one, her ANBU stalker that frequently came to check that she was still in the academy while not watching Naruto. His chakra always left a slightly annoying sense of deja vu and familiarity, nagging at her that she should recognize the signature.

Whatever. Must be mind numbingly boring to watch children all day. Fleetingly, she wondered what sucker got stuck with _that_ shit job.

Her thoughts turned to flashbacks of her brother first telling her of the elite squad of ninja known as the ANBU. Of how strenuous the training to become a member is, how there are children her age being preened and groomed for the position, and how she could be one of them some day if she chose. She also remembered the wince on his face as he said it with trepidation, knowing how much he hated the idea. He had always been overprotective of his baby sister, and thoroughly believed in letting children still be children when and while they can.

Shaking away the nostalgia, she returned her attention to the teacher who was just now scolding the class to pay attention, making the small boy next to her jerk guiltily. She rolled her eyes, focusing on her breathing and distracting herself by running through different hand signs in her mind for ninjutsu that she could practice later.

Really the teacher did nothing to frighten her. For a child of 29-going-on-9, the rest of the class was immature in that they had not come to realize that the teacher actually could not do anything to them to enforce control over the classroom. His power to maintain said control was completely dependent upon the fact that eight year olds—well, eleven and twelve considering she was younger than every other person in her class—had yet to realize that psychological intimidation that the teacher was using, in reality, would be nothing if they chose not to listen. What was he going to do? Intimidate her to death with threats that he could not, and would not, carry out? As if.

Focus was becoming a problem in such a boring class.

Her mind drifted back to her baby nephew back in the orphanage and it made Kikyo stiffen with annoyance. No matter her personal opinions on the matter, she _needed_ to pay attention. To learn as much as she could, as efficiently as she could, in order to provide for her little family.

A flash of silver flicker flickered from the tree and she could faintly make out silver-grey hair as it became lost in the distance moments later.

A small smile tugged at her lips, one face clear in her mind as the only person she knew with that hair—that hair which she had drooled over and dreamt of many times. The hair of her not-so-long-ago crush. She resolved to trust her nagging gut more often.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hmm...I wonder if I have to put a disclaimer at the start of every chapter? Ah, well. To be safe, I'll do this one. Any more is just too troublesome. Fuck it.**

 **I don't own anything but my ideas and Kikyo. Naruto and it's plot line, characters, history, etc. all belong to Kishimoto. Thanks for reading, enjoy, and feel free to leave feedback!**

Wiping the sweat from her tanned brow, she saw the silhouette of a small, lean, and familiar figure making their way through the trees under the dark sky. With a fleeting smile she abandoned her training, almost done for the night regardless, and sprinted to catch up. She couldn't make out their destination, but she didn't much care—she had just recently been in better spirits, and more of her old self, and she didn't want to waste her small amount of happiness.

"Kakashi-san!" She called out just a few meters away, and he had little time to escape as she skidded to a stop next to him. "Would you like to train a bit with me? I believe that while I'm not quite ANBU level yet, I'm not far behind and I would really appreciate your help if you have the time." Her mannerisms hadn't changed, and while inwardly he was surprised to find he didn't mind her presence, he definitely had no time for her.

No time for attachments, he mentally corrected.

"Ah, Kikyo-chan. What are you, nine now? You sound so old." Not dismissing or accepting her offer yet, she blinked twice, unsure of what kind of deflection he was trying to use, and nodded.

"Minato used to say that about you too, you know." The air around the two grew thick with tension and she took his silence as a refusal. The joy that had sparked in her was put out in that moment, and her blue eyes turned hard and cold. They bore into him, empty and almost seemed to _see through him-_ "Well, I won't keep you then. Oyasumi nasal (good night)." Turning on her heel almost immediately she flash stepped silently back to the small area she had taken over for training, missing the slight frown on her crush's face (though she would avidly deny it, some part of her was still hopelessly infatuated with him). He left just as swiftly, meaning he missed the angry and forceful grunts escaping her lips when she resumed training with a new vigor.

She did not think about the way his deep, flint gray eyes seemed to shine when they first made eye contact. She did not think about the abnormal (adorable) direction his hair stuck up, nor did the fact that he rejected her offer to spend time together after almost a year of silence even cross her mind. She especially did not focus on the way her heart clenched painfully in her chest, or the mist that clouded her vision. Nine or not, it was never easy to be on the giving end of unrequited love.

Rejection is a bitter pill to swallow, and all that.

So she trained. Solely concentrated on training, harder, better, faster, _stronger_.

Always to be stronger.

The Sandaime Hokage himself administered her chuunin exams, at the request of both herself and her sensei. Still nine years old, but finally able to call herself a chuunin, she wore the smaller version of the flak jacket with a strange astuteness for her age and size. Though for the most part aloof and fairly stoic, the barest hint of a smile on her face _most_ of the time, she let loose the reigns on her normal demeanor for a moment. At the sight of her sensei Kikyo launched herself into his outstretched arms, smiled brightly (something the Sandaime realized he hadn't seen in over a year) and actually giggled.

"Jiraiya-sensei I did it!" The toad sage gave her a grin in return, placing her on his shoulders as they both looked to the Third Hokage with matching smiles. Even he couldn't resist smiling with them and nodding, praising her skills in his grandfatherly voice. Was it just her or did all old people have similar "grandfather"/ "grandmother" voices?

"Yes, and easily too. It seems your sensei has done something right for once." Kikyo stifled a laugh at the now red-faced pervert, who had truly grown on her over the past year. Since her graduation from the academy, she spent most of her time training or with Naruto. Still an infant, there wasn't much she could do for him at the moment so she took the opportunity to spend time honing her skills as much as possible. She knew she already advanced well past the level of chuunin, but she still had a ways to go before she would be ready for ANBU. Turning her attention back to the two men, she smiled down from the shoulders she rested upon, remembering fondly the first time she met the toad sage, now her trusted mentor.

 _It was safe to say he instantly had her attention. And not in a good way._

 _"_ _Eh? You want me to be this little thing's teacher? She's a child! I have more important research…ahem, I have no time to be a sensei." Kikyo could feel her eye twitch momentarily at the man beside her. As if her respect for the Sandaime Hokage—after the treatment of herself and Naruto since the attack a few months prior—had not already been wavering on barely acceptable for a leaf shinobi, this pushed her over the edge._

 _"_ _You want this perverted oaf to teach me the ways of the shinobi? Thank you, but I'll have to respectfully decline." She flicked her cold, ice blue eyes to the side, taking in the reaction of the man beside her who sputtered for a few moments and glared back at her._

 _"_ _Who are you calling a perverted oaf, pipsqueak!" She scoffed, rolling her eyes and turning her attention back to the Third._

 _"_ _If it wasn't obvious by the three women I saw you peep on in the bathing area I happened to be leaving on the way here, it would have been by the way you stared at the women just in this building." With her attention not focused on him, she didn't see the slight smirk on the older man's face as he slammed his hand on the desk, slightly startling her._

 _"_ _You have fire. Sass, which I don't appreciate, but do encourage. I'll take her Sarutobi-sensei. I was already thinking of staying in Konoha for some time before I hit the dusty trail again anyway." The old man's eyes sparkled at the girl, who had since turned to stare incredulously at the pervert's use of 'Sarutobi-sensei.' She shuddered at the thought of this man being an actual_ _sannin_ _, but concluded that she had definitely judged him too quickly. She knew that he would have to be the toad sage, and to be a sage means one has achieved a level beyond that of even the most elite shinobi._

 _The two of them not long after, found themselves at the memorial stone. The large man took a seat next to her brothers, just sitting quietly, and confusing her further. Kikyo was agitated, unable to think of a logical reason for the two of them to be there, before it clicked and she stopped breathing._

 _"_ _You…my brother, he mentioned your name once. He-he called you Jiraiya-sensei…were you…" For the first time in a long time, she found her throat closed up, unable to speak, and stumbling over her words until the sage smiled up at her._

 _"_ _Yes. Minato was one of my pupils, a long time ago. Not too long before you were born, if I recall correctly, but I left the village for some time after they all became chuunin. I have never been so proud as when I saw your brother named the Yondaime Hokage." Slowly coming to sit next to him, she did not protest when he hesitatingly wrapped an arm around her, bringing her into his side in a sort-of-fatherly embrace._

 _The rest of the afternoon was spent telling stories, sharing tales of Minato and Jiraiya's old students, laughing, and crying together. Although she rarely opened up to people—kind but reserved, people often mistook her for being antisocial—she found it easy to be comfortable around him. Still a kid, she took comfort in his presence and his wisdom, as she learned he was more than she had judged him to be. For once, someone allowed her to be the child she had buried with her brother._

Treating her to ramen in celebration of her promotion, she spent the better part of the afternoon enjoying time with her sensei, pestering him to stop peeking at women, and trying to keep him out of trouble. After promising not to train that evening, and with nothing better to do, she headed back to the orphanage.

But being at the orphanage meant taking care of Naruto, something which she enjoyed but exhausted her. She hadn't had an issue with the staff as of yet, as far as their treatment of her 'brother' went, but she often found herself alone with him, lost in her thoughts. It was this time spent alone, the time when she sat just holding him, playing silently with him, or lying awake in her bed, that was the most dangerous.

All of her fears ran through her head, her insecurities, worries, feelings. The darkest parts of herself, young as she was, came out of their cage to haunt her. She felt hatred, anger, sorrow, bitterness. Frustration, feeling stuck in her progress, a deep rage that they had been dealt such shitty cards. She just felt _so much_ but could not do anything about it.

What use would it be to act on such pointless emotions? What use were emotions in the first place?

It was a question that kept the empty smile on her face and in her eyes, day after day.

One month.

One month before her ANBU exams, and her sensei was preparing to leave the village on a mission concerning one of his former teammates. The Hokage was certainly pulling strings considering the speed with which he had organized the exam, which was suspicious in and of itself. In her frustration, she nearly missed the target altogether and felt her hand shake with rage and she turned to the tree nearest to her with an angry shout, feeling her skin make contact with the rough bark of the tree as it made a tiny fist-shaped hole through the center of the trunk.

"Now I wonder what could that tree have done to anger you so?" Spinning around with her injured hand held up to her chest, she met the black, onyx eyes of a boy seeming to be around her age. She stared at him silently for a moment, recognizing the signature features of an Uchiha (not to mention their clan crest embroidered onto the bottom hem of his shirt), before answering.

"It was next to me." Holding in a groan at the utter blandness of her answer, where normally her wit would have prevailed, she was slightly surprised by the soft chuckle from the boy. At some point he had — silently, which instantly made her curiosity shoot the hell up about this Uchiha kid — appeared right in front of her and slowly reached for her hand, as if to ask permission. Hesitatingly she placed it in his, watching as he inspected it.

"Well, it doesn't seem to be broken, but you have torn the skin around your knuckles. It would be best to wrap it in order to prevent infection." Blinking at him as if to say she could have deduced that herself, he gave her a gentle look before turning toward the way he had come. "Technically, these are Uchiha clan training grounds. I'm assuming you weren't aware, but in any case I live close by. I can wrap your hand if you like." Sufficiently taken aback by his kind offer, a rare smile slowly graced her lips as she joined him in walking towards his home.

"I don't believe we've met, Uchiha-san. I'm Uzumaki Kikyo, and I apologize for trespassing—you are correct in assuming I didn't mean to. I'm training for an exam next month, and I just wanted somewhere more private when I stumbled upon these training grounds." Her companion halted, staring at her for a moment, before smiling again, a bit brighter than before but still somewhat reserved.

"I am Uchiha Itachi, and I believe I know the exams you're training for. I was watching you before, you're very skilled, but you can do better. You will need to do better in order to pass, in fact." Staring at him with now narrowed eyes, she quickly identified him as _the_ Uchiha prodigy that had made ANBU the year before. This boy, because he was indeed a boy and barely older than herself, was much more dangerous than he looked. A mischievous glint made its way to her eye as she slyly looked at the boy, smirking.

"Say, Itachi-san, are you by any chance free for training…perhaps tomorrow?"


	3. Chapter 3

**HA, posted all three of these in the same day because (sorry kids) I won't be updating for a little while. End of semester means finals means papers on papers on papers, and I do wanna put out better work than the shit I was producing before. Albeit I'm 20 (turning 21 next month) so what did you really expect? I've got dank to smoke and shit to do man.**

 **Anyway, I do really enjoy where this story is going, and where it COULD go. Who knows where it'll lead, I sure as hell know that no matter how many times I say I'm gonna have her do this, or learn that, or develop this, or go on this mission, my brain says "think again."**

 **So anyway.. here:**

"Your aim is off. You're not accounting for the weight of the blade when you come down for a swing with your left hand. Again." Suppressing a groan, she accepted the slave-driver's criticism and silently cursed herself for ever asking to train together. Although she could not deny that in the three and half weeks since they began her nightly (whenever he didn't have a mission) training, she had improved exponentially.

Her taijutsu had always been good, proficient at best really, but the standard Leaf stance just wasn't for her. Jiraiya-sensei had repeatedly tried to teach her different styles but they all ended up in much the same way. Proficient, at best.

Training with Itachi, however gruelling, did improve her taijutsu by a significant amount. After much discussion of what the repercussions _may_ be in the future and how best to go about handling it, he taught her the Uchiha style of hand-to-hand combat.

Part of the secret of fighting like an Uchiha lied in their doujutsu. The Sharingan is able to predict the moves that ones opponent is going to make before they make them. While this is a widely known fact for ninja familiar with the doujutsu, usually unfamiliar to anyone who isn't an Uchiha themselves is that their taijutsu style does much the same thing.

Slowly but surely, Itachi drilled into her the ways to predict ones movements _without_ the sharingan. Much more effective when paired with the doujutsu, but quite deadly all on its own.

In addition to taijutsu, they were able to work on her element affinities. While unsurprised with her main element, wind, her second element somewhat surprised her. In that it was _two._ She was equally as able to preform lightning type jutsu as she was _fire_ type jutsu. Though she didn't quite have the chakra reserves built up yet, nor the sharingan to easily copy moves, she was able to preform three jutsu of all three types during their most recent sparring session. She now had an arsenal of around a dozen mostly B and a few A-rank jutsu, including a few Katon jutsu curtesy of her new training partner and friend.

Finally, her genjutsu proved to be what she would be using the least, because she simply did not have the time or patience or _interest_ really. It had nothing to do with her chakra control, rather her lack of investment in the style. Itachi scolded her repeatedly, but decided that a genjutsu wouldn't hold her back as much as long as she could become formidable in ninjutsu, taijutsu and still be able to recognize and break genjutsu (although he never let it go).

Hours spent not training with Itachi (or lazing about with Naruto when she just couldn't move), she spent perfecting her chakra control and studying up on fuuinjutsu. Still nowhere near mastering the control of her chakra, she was confident that she was at least jonin level if not a little higher. She was able to mold her chakra on the outside of her body, something Jiraiya-sensei had taught her, and had progressed to manipulating some of the explosive seals and tags to make the impact area and force of the explosion greater.

The last time she showed Itachi ended up with a very, _very_ angry looking teenager missing an eyebrow.

Coming back to reality, she felt the humidity in the air, chakra beneath her skin buzzing around as she contained her chakra, focusing on the taijutsu and kenjutsu that Itachi was finishing teaching to her. Moving her body, she focused on the twelve-year old opposite her, sweat glistening on her skin, analyzing him for the opportune moment to strike. They had been going at it since lunch, and it was well into the night, so she knew she would have to end the spar quickly while conserving her strength. When he feigned left, she attacked right, drawing her _tanto_ down in a fluid strike. Nearly slashing his arm, she moved at the last moment to disarm him, twisting his arm behind his back and forcing him to his knees. She let him go quickly after, taking care not to actually hurt him, and received a long stare as she stood huffing before her mostly fine training partner. After a moment, she recognized the proud look behind the guard in his eyes, and her heart swelled as she took the time to feel a bit proud herself.

"You are ready." She beamed at him, a smile that quickly turned into a pout as she shook off the hand trying to ruffle her hair, earning a laugh from the mostly stoic boy in response.

"You could at least try to look a little winded, as if fighting me were some sort of effort for you _Weasel_ -san." She reveled in the slight flicker of annoyance in her friend's eyes before she was running from him, dodging his attempts to grip her in a headlock. Stifling her laugh as he finally did catch her, she collapsed on the ground, face turned up toward the sky and closed her eyes. She felt, more than heard, the soft thud of Itachi's body as he plopped down next to her, which absolutely did not make her blush, and the two shared the silence for a moment before she spoke.

"Did I ever tell you who I am? I mean, who I really am?" She turned her head to the side, half-lidded blue eyes looking many years past eleven, and Itachi could only stare at her face—her tan skin was nearly glowing the moon was so bright, and she had this ephemeral look about her, as if she was only there for a short time—while he silently waited for her to continue. "In order to stay with Naruto, I had to change my identity. Had to give up my last name, so that people would think I am his sister. In truth, I'm the Fourth's sister." She said it so softly, her eyes glazing with the slight faraway look that told him she was concentrating on any chakra signatures nearby, and Itachi almost forgot what she had said.

Of course, he couldn't ask about her relation to Naruto so, figuring that the answer would come to him sooner or later, he smoothly changed the topic to his little brother (whom Kikyo had met the first night Itachi himself had met her—and his mother too—and instantly fell in love with the adorable baby. She often pestered Itachi to tell her all about him). She just laid there as he spoke, nodding and offering small smiles when appropriate, not truly focusing on his words.

Her mind whispered to her, reminded her to be wary, be kind but do not get too close to anyone who could leave you. Do not spend more time with him than you have to; **training** is all you can do. Leave immediately.

His soft, surprisingly firm voice drew her out of her thoughts, and she found herself engaged in conversation once more. She stayed out under the stars with him for the rest of the night.

—

There was nothing more frustrating than being unable to sleep.

Thankfully (depending on how you look at it) Kikyo had an abundance of seals to dissect given to her by Jiraiya-sensei to 'keep her on her toes.' They ranged anywhere from simple storage seals, to more complex C-rank or even B-rank seals, but none of them were labeled or explained. When he had first given her the stack of seals — all of them written with regular ink in lieu of chakra-infused ink so as not to cause any…mishaps — she had groaned. The time it would take her to go through and figure out which was which, let alone learn to master them, would be _so annoying_.

She learned very quickly that Jiraiya-sensei for all his pervertedness, could be quite sadistic when it came to training.

However these seals still felt too easy for her; the problem wasn't in identifying the seals. That came with practice and time, which she had done much of already. Although it was no easy feat to take apart a seal and understand which components would cause what, determine the overall outcome, etc., she could already do that. It wasn't a waste of her time per say, but it was like telling the Hokage practice substitution; despite his age he would be the first to say he is far from mastering ninjutsu, but he's also far past the basics.

She sighed, running her fingers through her hair and thinking of her sensei. He had been particularly distracted lately, which showed in giving her such a menial task to complete.

At the very least he had given her seals that she could put into practice for her exam.

Unfortunately, especially in the case of higher ranked seals, it was much harder to anticipate how much chakra one would need to activate the seal. Depending upon the specifications of the design, pumping too much chakra into the seal could do any number of things including breaking the seal, exploding the seal, frying the seal, or even disintegrating it. Conversely, not enough chakra would be wasteful to herself, and either wouldn't activate the seal or wouldn't get her the full result of the jutsu.

Kikyo was proud to say that over the years she's gained exceptional control over her chakra. She considered herself to have above average sized chakra reserves, on the higher side for kunoichi, but nothing even close to that of her brothers yet. Jiraiya had told her that over time, she would be able to build her reserves up, and she had already seen improvement.

Ninja could build their chakra stores fairly easily through training. That didn't mean that you could increase your stores forever though; just as there is a limit to how much your body can endure physically — how long and far you can run, for example — there's a limit to how much chakra you can use. Training can push you to the limits, and help you understand the maximum capacity your body can use before you are completely depleted of chakra.

And Kikyo, ever since she could remember, could sense chakra. Not just the chakra in her body, but the chakra in everything. In every plant, animal, in the air, in food, like a thick fog. Whenever she concentrated on it too much it would cause her mind to swim and lungs to clench, just enough to force her to stop. The type of chakra was irrelevant, she could feel everything from natural chakra to residue from jutsu. Her overdeveloped sense of chakra was handy at times, but it was something she had yet to speak to Jiraiya or the Hokage about. Eventually she knew she would have to mention it but it was so natural to her and had never done her damage, therefore she didn't see the point in rushing that conversation.

Interesting about her 'ability' however, was that any area that someone had used chakra in or that chakra was used on, left a trail or mark that became visible to her as if they were tangible footprints if she focused enough. Chakra footprints almost. Being able to sense and distinguish between bodies of chakra that were people, find chakra infused traps, etc. would be a skill she definitely wanted to hone and therefore would need a mentor specialized in chakra sensitivity to do so. Ah, that was the point in having that conversation.

Kikyo wilted at the thought of yet _another_ skill she would have to train, but mentally berated herself. There were people that would kill to be able to have that talent. Moreover, she had people that she needed to protect, people to fight for and a village that she had a duty to.

There was _Naruto_.

Returning her attention to the seals in front of her, she quickly identified which ones that Jirairya had slipped in for her to study for the test. All three were his own seals, his own style, and he was adamant that she did not use them. The principle of them, yes, but the exact seal, no. He specifically wanted her to create her own, and use his as a foundation— every seal master had their own language, their own style of fuuinjutsu, etc. He was very clear that she would not be able to use his seals if she was to become a master of the art herself, to which she agreed.

Besides, how much fun would it be to rub in the Uhciha's face that she could actually do something he couldn't?

The first seal she picked up was actually a few seals wrapped up in one theory, a barrier that could entrap ones opponent and prevent them from leaving its confines. The user would have to channel their chakra, in the form of a seal, to a part of their body (or more easily done by using four tags and drawing the seals with chakra ink) in order to place the seals in four locations as a trap. Now channeling chakra in the form of a seal is a very rudimentary explanation of the actual process of creating and placing seals onto a surface of some sort; the real trick of combat seal masters is applying the seals without the fuss of paper and ink.

They say the Fourth could lay a seal any place he touched. They didn't call her brother a genius for nothing, but she wasn't one to come out in 'second place.'

So by the end of the night Kikyo had completely changed each of the three seals, deconstructing each stroke of the kanji just to reconstruct it using her own mix of chakra-infused ink and a slightly different approach.

Five straight days spent in the library weeks ago had given her the idea, and once she began to understand the basics of it, the concept of using circles to create stronger, more secure seals came surprisingly easy to her.

Decades, perhaps even centuries ago, monks from the fire temple experimented with such sealing. Their use of natural energy and chakra stabilized the seal, and it dawned then on Kikyo that those without the ability to control, or at least sense natural chakra, would not be able to practice it. She would just have to tweak their style a bit to be able to use it herself, while still having anonymity and a strong code.

Thus, she began the relentless work of creating her own style of sealing. Anyone that saw her practicing would just assume that she was drawing circles. Any time that she wanted to practice or tinker without the prying eyes of someone that may be able to understand fuuinjutsu, she would no longer have to worry.

Finally finishing around 4 in the morning she leaned back in her chair, satisfied and exhausted. Excited too, she would be able to start testing her manipulation of the seals with her own chakra, or at the least put them to use with the stack of paper tags she had stacked neatly in the middle of her desk. With her work done for the night she clambered into bed just before four-thirty.


	4. Chapter 4

The training grounds were a complete _disaster_. If she hadn't been there to inflict and see the damage done herself, she would have sworn that one of Jiraiya's summons had blasted the area. The look on her friend's face said everything as she turned to greet him, a mildly amused smile on her face. The Uchiha said nothing, calmly taking his place beside her on the grass and settling in comfortably, something she noticed he did not do often enough. A few moments passed before she decided to break the silence.

"I'm not really sure where to begin, or how to explain the in between, so you'll have to bear with me. It's just, I've created these seals you see, one of which has the ability to detonate whatever it comes into contact with, and the other bends sound. The seal I'm hoping to complete later would be able to bend time, but that's not really important at the moment. It would also bend space, and I can't seem to figure out how to—" She stopped abruptly, staring at him with a bemused glare. Itachi's normally blank face faltered, as he sputtered in his own silent manner, clearly not following her.

"Bending time seems fairly important Kikyo." Her name still sounded fairly foreign coming from his lips, but he did well to hide his awkwardness with dropping the honorific. It was a step in the right direction. She merely waved her hand, dismissing that topic and attempting to gloss over it.

"Time is the easy part once you get to thinking about it. Space is considerably harder." Itachi was certainly considered genius, yet he truly was having trouble keeping up with her thought process, pure disbelief emanating from him. Admittedly she _had_ been sleeping a lot less lately, forgoing sleep for hours spent hunched over thick books of science, philosophy, and history.

"What do you mean, 'time is the easy part'?" His curious stare only elicited a half-hearted glare and a huff from her. While he wan't stupid, she struggled to put her thoughts into words that he might understand, oblivious to her large, white haired sensei very randomly sneaking up on her from behind. He paused as she finally found her words, precariously positioned behind her to pounce, but stopped at her statement.

"Time, well, it doesn't exist." She calmly flicked her eyes upward in time to see her sensei fall to the ground only to jump back up and place a finger on his chin, joining the conversation as smoothly as he arrived.

"That's an interesting claim you've made." She could see another question coming from the Uchiha so she held up a hand and continued on.

"Listen, follow me on this for a moment: time does not exist in the technical meaning of existence. Existence is the fact or state of living, and as far as I've been able to determine, time isn't alive, but I'll think on that later. As it is, time is a 'dimension,' the fourth dimension to be exact. The other dimensions are characterized by the number of points it takes to create whatever is housed inside of it, or along it, depending on what you're talking about."

She took a breath, gauging how glazed their eyes were becoming.

"Without going too far into string theory, all I'll say is that time can't really be defined. It can't be seen, tasted, or touched, but it touches us, and breaks us down. It breaks everything down in the end, and will be the only thing left standing when everything is gone, but that brings to mind the sort of question like 'if a tree falls and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?' If no one and no single thing is present to feel the passage of time, and be affected by it, then does time still exist? Do the seconds still go by? So, no. Time does not 'exist,' it does not live, it does not interact. It cannot be understood. But it can be re-written, if you're clever enough, apparently."

She motioned to the half drawn circles on the scattered papers around her legs.

"Now, we circle back to what I'm doing here, which has an itty bit to do with that. I want a dimension. Not like, evil overlord style, I just want a small bit of space to fit into an even smaller bit of space. Which will be infinitely easier with seals, because I have one-dimensional circles to act in the place of what I can only imagine would be machines as big as my head. Some circles won't be good enough, though. I need to find a way to validate superstring theory, and find 11 dimensions, then not really create my own, but just insert a bubble of space in between other space where it has no right to really be, and keep it there and keep it stable. Like a storage seal on a much, much larger scale."

Glancing up from her notes at her sensei and friend, their fairly blank expressions were so perfect she resolved to take a mental snapshot and store it in her mind for a rainy day.

"I still do not understand how this… happened." Bringing back to attention the destroyed field was none other than the Uchiha prodigy himself. Her sensei, now looking at her with a stern _dont-make-me-make-you-tell-me-what-happened-here_ glare caused her to sigh, flopping herself down onto the grass and staring up at the two questioning her.

"In essence, I created a completely new style of sealing that allows me to manipulate my chakra to imprint seals onto anything that I touch. I also created a few new seals based on what Jiraiya-sensei gave me, which include a new explosive seal that allows me to detonate it with only a flare of chakra, as well as a seal that controls sound waves. I can alter the seal to either block, transmit, project, or erase sound waves." The two males blinked for a few moments, her sensei coming back to reality enthusiastically.

"I'm sure R&D would love to see you patent that if it can be widely manufactured. We'll have to discuss this more over tea after the exams eh?" That word very nearly shut Kikyo down, the weight of said exam being two days away bearing down on her like a freight train. While she was confident in herself and her mind to get through the exam, she was still afraid of the small chance that she would completely botch it. That fear was pushed aside quickly though, stretching her arms out to support her head and tilt her face toward the sky.

"I'm going to use some of my research that originates from theories of the monks in the Fire Temple, and some of my own coding that I've been working on. They could study it for a thousand years and never understand." The cockiness, but sureness in her voice startled both men but they each smiled. Same old Kikyo. Sharp as a kunai, and confident in her throw.

"And how is that?" The sealing master in her sensei awakened, judging by the curious tone of his voice. He turned to watch her smirk at the air, her gaze toward the setting sun casting vibrant colors across the sky.

"Because no matter how smart they are, or think they are, I will always be more clever." She sighed, forcing her tired body to energize itself and jumped to her feet, giving them a small smile and brushing dirt and grass from her clothing as she began walking away. "Now if you'll excuse me I have several months worth of fuuinjutsu research to go through. I'll see you later Itachi, Sensei."

At her departing figure, the older man visibly deflated, age settling over his features the longer he stared at his pupil's retreating figure. Itachi was not close to the man, but through acquaintance had come to know him, if only slightly. He also cared deeply for his friend and was glad to see she had a mentor that did as well.

"I worry about her. More often than I should, but with a brain like that it's hard not to. She's too damn smart. Kid could get herself killed." There was no response, only the slight pickup in wind as the Uchiha disappeared. Though undeclared, the Toad Sage was not the only one whose fear had come to that conclusion.

—

The test had begun a full day ago.

Jiraiya took his time escorting her to the exam location, underground beneath the T&I headquarters where there was a large training grounds specifically for ANBU. Their walk had been silent, but she remembered —how could she forget?— the hard look in his eye when he asked her if she was sure about her decision. _Not even hesitating to say yes, he grabbed her shoulders and stared at her straight in the eyes._

 _"_ _This exam is usually for a larger group of people, but it has been specifically tailored to break you. They don't just want you to show them your skills in battle Kikyo. Being in ANBU is serious, and I know that you know that but please just hear me out: Ibiki Morino, Inoichi Yamanaka and the Hokage himself put this test together for you. The three of them will be there. But you have never felt pain like you will feel during this test. You are a remarkable young girl, but if you have even one iota of uncertainty, leave now. You can take it in a few years but you can't un-take this." She mused for a moment that the old, 'eyes are the window for the soul' saying really did have some truth to it. Her sensei thought her fragile. She could see it in the creases of his face, the worried furrowing of his brow, the twitch of his eye when she saw his imagination run away with what the test could be; but aside from her deductive skills and reading his body language, his eyes were filled to the brink with worry._

 _She grinned at him, real emotion on her face for once, and socked him a little harder than intended in the arm. Her sensei rubbed it, a look she didn't recognize on his face. "Don't worry so much about me. I'll be just fine." A playful smirk flashed across her features and she walked through the doors, only holding one hand up as a goodbye._

But he had not been wrong. That old man didn't think she was fragile, he wasn't worried she wasn't strong enough, he was worried that mentally she just wasn't fucking ready.

And she had never felt pain like this in her life. Every inch of her body felt like it was on fire, agony searing through her veins. She, of course, had known what was going to happen as soon as her sensei dropped the T&I members names, and she was spot on. _Painfully_ so.

The test had begun with the Hokage very calmly skimming what encompassed the two stages she would be completing. The first would be 12 hours of mental torture in which the Yamanaka would enter her mind and create a space where Ibiki would have free reign to test the limits of her physical body and mental capacity in one place. As she was so young and intelligent, grooming her to be an assassin or a spy meant that she would be highly at risk for kidnapping, torture, and interrogation. The second stage would be a battle with three other members of ANBU, tournament style, until one person remained—and hopefully that person would be her.

The ten hours of torture felt much longer than she had anticipated. The physical torture was tedious but not especially hard. Numbing the pain, even from inside of her mind, was easy. No matter how young Kikyo was, in reality her mind was such a fortress there was nothing that could harm her from inside of it. Or so she thought.

The mental torture very clearly did not go as well as she had hoped. Inoichi had been kind enough to tell her what he was going to do before he did it, but she realized quickly that kindness would do her no good. There were three very old doors, all made of dark wood that looked as if it had been there for centuries, faded but still sturdy. There were large chains and locks all over the three doors, and though he tried, Inoichi was unsuccessful in managing to break through them.

Kikyo wondered if that was luck or a mistake. Even _she_ had trouble remembering what was behind those doors. They had been sealed since she was a child but…when had she really been a child?

He started plucking memories from long strips of bunched up scenes and stages of life. She watched him skip past her birth, playing with Minato — just seeing his face brought back so much. Overwhelming emotions poured through her at the sight of her brother until Inoichi finally found a memory to exploit. The Kyuubi attack.

When waking from the first stage two hours premature, she did not speak to a single person in the room. Inoichi had a very shaken and pale look on his face, and Ibiki actually looked bewildered. And Kikyo just calmly exited the room to be escorted to where the training grounds were, to begin the battle royale. She was not allowed to eat, drink, or rest after. And if anyone had asked Ibiki Morino, he would have told them that in that moment, he wouldn't fight that child for _anything_. Inoichi had learned much from the mind walk manipulation, but one thing was paramount: that girl was not normal.

The second stage of the exam was explained more thoroughly before she began. The proctor, an ANBU member with a Tiger mask, did not waste time.

"You'll be fighting against myself first, Hawk, and then Dog will be your final opponent. You will have full use of any and all weapons you brought with yourself, as well as the option to choose one weapon out of the four on the rack. Choose wisely." With a step to the left, she saw that he had been blocking a small rack of weapons. A bo staff, two tonfa, a katana, as well as a tanto, were displayed on the rack. Immediately, knowing that she was most proficient with and could use a tanto effectively, she chose that weapon. Leaving it for someone else to use against her would be a waste. And, she reckoned that they wanted to see her skill with weapons, otherwise why give the option at all?

Her proctor, whom she thought was a proctor and supposed was actually her opponent the entire time, shun-shinned backwards, disappearing in a flurry of leaves.

Well. Time to become ANBU then.

Kikyo backflipped gracefully from an oncoming strike of the bo staff, aimed for her solar plexus to knock the air out of her. Maybe even knock her out. Too slow.

She whirled around the next jab, drawing chakra to her fingers and with her eyes closed, slapped a small seal onto the wood of the staff, flickering away to a safe point and pulsing her chakra.

The resounding explosion was quite intense, Tiger dropping his staff just as he saw the seal placed, but the aftershock was something he wasn't prepared for. No, he just wasn't prepared for a _child_ to truly understand the art of sealing. And what kind of seal _was_ tha-

She appeared in front of him with three tags, giving the larger man an eery smile, before completely disappearing.

Completely.

Dog had entered just a few moments before the explosion, joining the other ANBU members as well as Ibiki and Inoichi, to watch the fight. All of them collectively drew in a breath when they felt, not just saw, her chakra signature vanish. There was no trace, not one single iota of chakra that they could sense.

"Is that even possible?" Inoichi whispered the question and was slapped hard on the back by a large man with long, white hair.

"With that kid, anything is possible. I think she finally did it Weasel-san." Dog had barely noticed his approaching subordinate in the wake of such a surprising turn of events, but the small twelve year old did not hesitate.

"I believe you're correct Jiraiya-san." They had no more time to ponder or question when Kikyo flared to life again, hand touching an intricate pattern of circles that caused the ground to literally split and a large wave of dirt to swallow Tiger inside of it, slowly closing inwards until it became a dome and stopped moving. Then crunched inwards again. Stopped, and repeated.

"15 seconds and the hand will keep contracting, pushing oxygen inside of the structure out of it, depleting your source of air. Forfeit, and I will release you." Muted shuffling could be heard from inside the hand before a meek, "I forfeit!" came. The earth crumbled to dust as Kikyo broke the circles, and Tiger came up to her with a weary look.

"I have to ask…where did you go when your chakra disappeared?" She smiled darkly, rage still pooling in her gut from the _first_ part of the test, and held her hand out to shake.

"How about I answer that as soon as these fights are over? I wouldn't want to give it away too soon, and should you have further questions I'd like to give them proper answers." To his credit, he took the interaction in stride, but still shook her hand and left perplexed.

Hawk, the next opponent she was facing, judging by his frame was going to give her a harder time with kenjutsu than Tiger. His body was lean and as the man stepped up to pick up the two tonfa, Kikyo readied herself with the tanto she had chosen. While she was hoping to save the tanto for when she fought Dog, Kikyo knew she would not be able to dance away from this fight without using her weapon.

The clatter of metal on pierced the silence, two blurs moving harmoniously in speed. Remembering what Weasel literally beat into her — you don't always have to be the fastest, just don't be slower than your opponent — she was able to match Hawk's speed, if not his ferocity. The power behind his strikes was not more than she could parry, however posed a challenge to her muscles. Continuous heavy blows would weaken her quicker than she could afford.

Naturally, she did the only thing she could do. Melt.

So, not the only thing she could do. But the _coolest_. Saving this particular seal for a rainy day had proved successful. The shock factor gave her just enough time, about half a second, to disarm Hawk after she materialized. As she slapped an explosive tag on his arm, she realized the Hawk in front of her had been a clone the entire time. With an irked smirk, she whirled around and shoved her hand into the earth, activating the seal on her arm as she did so. Her hand passed through the earth, phantom-like, and found hair, yanking up to meet a fist to the face.

Poof!

So. Hawk hid a kunai in that punch. Interesting. Before emerging from the shadows, Kikyo put her next move into motion. All of the candles in the room went out, completely removing any and all light on the battlefield. With silent steps, she crept up on her target, Hawk still trying to sense the chakra around him and not paying close attention to his other senses. With no chakra to be tracked or sensed, she was able to get the knife to his neck and finally release the genjutsu, light flooding the area.

But Hawk was somehow behind her. She nearly took a blow to the head, substituting herself seconds before his blow could connect. Breathe. Don't fuck up.

Thankfully with a kunoichi as renown as Lady Tsunade, of the Legendary Sannin, as a former team member and friend of her mentor, she was able to learn the Mystical Palm technique. With a quick flash of green light, she was able to close her wound. Hawk was next to her in seconds, her tanto blocking, and slashing, moving him backwards slowly. Nicking his hand with a precise strike, Hawk dropped one of his tonfa, and Kikyo was able to catch it on her foot and punt it to the side of the battle grounds.

Breathe.

She concentrated on her body, thinking nothing and everything at the same time, eyes barely moving from her target. Hawk's throat. While he was preoccupied with her striking, on the defense, she cloned herself behind him, slapping an explosive seal on his neck. Hawk stopped, mid counter strike, and dropped his tonfa, allowing Kikyo to remove the seal. He didn't relax until she moved away from him, bowing in forfeit. She smiled, allowing her body a few moments rest while she waited for her next opponent.

Dog stepped up, forgoing his own tanto. He had seen enough of that it seemed. If he needed to draw his weapon he would, but he waited for her to make the first move. Interesting. Just as she was moving to strike Dog noticed a shadow glimmering on his left side. Just like she practiced.

Just a brush, but that was all it took.

A halo of black ink blossomed on Dog's arm, the small part of it that was exposed, and all three Kikyo's moved at the same time. The familiar hum of chakra, activating the storage seal, steel wire whipped out and was caught, tangling him in a web of steel thread. She yanked as hard as she could, his body _poof_ -ing and a **pop!** sounded as one of her shadow clones was dispelled. She was able to conjure up a few more, but even four more Kikyo's weren't enough.

Cursing, she felt a surge of chakra coming from Dog. Fuck. Like a Big Jutsu Coming Soon neon sign, that amount of chakra meant Dog was trying to end this fight and her, quickly. She had shown her cards. But she had a few more hands to play.

For any living, breathing, chakra-infused being to enter a non-living, vacuous and not completely decimate space-time, was impossible. _Was_ impossible.

Water rose, lashing out around her. Whipping towards her, she took off in a run, rolling away from each one, steadily gaining on Dog. The whoosh of water above her, mist sticking to her clothes and face. She had to break his concentration. She sent a flurry of kunai, knowing he could deflect, but he couldn't deflect a foot to the face from the side. Her clone disappeared as she came, again, seemingly from nowhere. No chakra to be detected, until it flared to life beside him.

His fist slammed into her cheek, tiredness beginning to set in her bones, muscles sluggish and beginning not to react. She needed to end the fight, win or lose. What was she forgetting-

Knockout tags. Sealless knockout tags, why did she not think of it? She could have ended this in the beginning instead of messing with storage seals for the steel wires! But, suddenly she felt a shift in the air. The force in his hits picked up, and something broke in her when she realized Kakashi, no, **Dog** was fighting with intent to kill.

Three seals. That's all she needs. She's been testing this, this would really cement what she could do, what she was capable of creating and inventing, and the versatility of it all. Three seals. Dodge. Kick. Distract. Place seal. Rinse and repeat.

Just as she placed the last one, her footing slipped. She nearly crashed to the ground, and she could feel in her body that she would not have gotten back up. She was fucking Kikyo Namikaze, she was not normal. She was legendary. She had to be, to protect her people, she had to be the _best_.

Dog smelled her sweat. She was weakening. He closed in, final blow sparking to life with the chirp of a thousand birds. Lightning came towards her.

It didn't hit.

Chidori collided against the shimmering edge of her golden-yellow chakra, struggled to break through, to prove which energy was stronger. The sheer force of his chakra against hers sent both of them flying, but his back hit the solid wall of her barrier seals.

He was trapped. For as long as she had chakra, she could keep that seal going. It didn't take much, but if he were to strike it multiple times with the force of his chidori, she might have to pump more in. Thankfully, she was able to encode a recycling component so that her chakra could flow freely within the seal and be reused.

Her sensei let out a low whistle. She turned to smile at him but the full force of the last 24+ hours hit her, and she collapsed. She didn't even have a chance to see the look on Dog's face. Damn it. Before she succumbed to sleep, she was able to make out the Third Hokage's voice.

"She may surpass her brother yet."

 **Alright it's been a while. But, to be fair, I've been working a shit ton and still going through college. Been through some tough health problems and mental/emotional issues lately too. But I'm back bitches. The next update is coming too. I've been writing with a renewed vigor lately trying to really crank this out. This is a SI-fic. I had always planned it to be, but I realize I need to update that. I just want to give you a little warning now, before I post the next chapter, where hopefully you'll be reading about it. Thinking on the plot of this story and Kikyo in general, I wanted her to be a prodigy. The more I thought about it though, I realized that I didn't want to just create a canon-story with Minato's sister. I wanted her to have foreknowledge, to shake up the canon-verse, to really make her mark on the Naruto world. Explore what it meant to put someone that not only has the physical and mental prowess to succeed in the ninja world, into said world, but lock within her the knowledge of what was to come. Someone with that much potential, that young, that knew what was going to happen in the future?**

 **Wouldn't that be something. I know it's been done before, but who Kikyo is becoming, the way she's beginning to grow, and what she's going to face, she's going to need it. It won't be completely AU, but it will be different from canon. Just to be clear.**

 **ANYWAY. Love and light. Thanks for reading, and as always, Naruto does not belong to me.**


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